As Plans Go
by Macx
Summary: pre-BW story as to how it all started from the Predacons' point of view. If someone has ever seen the Stingray episode 'Caper' before, this is written like the opening of that particular ep. Just BW-Style :)


**As Plans Go.......**   
by Birgit Staebler (mac@gno.de)

  
Okay, this was born out of another wild idea and too many hours of talking Beast Wars with a friend ..... and watching the Stingray episode 'Caper' (anyone who knows the episode will see what I mean). I'm not sure how serious you should take this fanfic. I'm not writing humor, nor am I writing sarcasm, but it has its humorous moments. You might want to call it an attempt to explain how Megatron ended up with the bunch of Predacons he now has under his command. :)   
As for the names, I'm keeping the names from the BW series, which might help identifying the characters. I know they most likely renamed themselves after their beast forms but it would be too much of a confusion to attach a new name to the character just for this short piece. So don't flame me for it! 

Author's Warning: English still isn't my first language (it's German) so there are grammatical errors and typos here for sure. 

Copyrights haven't changed at all. They all belong to Hasbro, Kenner, Alliance and Mainframe and whoever else holds any copyrights. 

Comments welcome. Have fun. :)   


As it should have been........

The building loomed up in front of them and Megatron smiled. Everything looked deserted and no one would be around here until morning. The only Maximals present were the guards and they would prove no problem at all. And if they became a problem, he knew how to deal with it. The commander nodded at his team and they dispersed, knowing what to do. Megatron activated his internal com line and watched.   
Everything was running smoothly. No one had seen them arrive and the small transport shuttle was almost invisible against the dark walls of the surrounding buildings. Thanks to Tarantulas' shielding device, they even had a marginal cover, since the shield made the shuttle look like part of the building -- camouflage. Tarantulas had warned them all that the power generator would not be able to uphold the camouflage once they got moving, but Megatron didn't care. The moment they would move it meant they had succeeded and would be on their way to the deep space ship to take them to their destination.   
A picture popped up on his view screen, a small device linked to the camera eye each Predacon on his team was outfitted with. It was Tarantulas' point of view as he took out a Maximal guard -- swiftly and noiselessly. The Maximal broke down without a sound and Tarantulas dragged him into the shadow of the building.   
Megatron smiled. Breaking into the Archive had been something everyone had told him was impossible. It was the most highly guarded place, at least civilian place, and no   
one had yet managed to get any further than the guards, who were specially trained for their job. The Archive contained no real valuables or military secrets, but it held treasures of a different kind. Knowledge.... knowledge that was as good as any military power if in the right hands. And Megatron considered his hands to be the right ones. He didn't want to loot the whole Archive, though, he only wanted one single piece from the countless artifacts:   
the Golden Disk, the most carefully guarded relic of them all. The idea of the theft had formed after he had heard about this mysterious Golden Disk and that it would point the way to a major energon source. Energon meant power and power meant control.   
None of the Predacons he had approached had taken him seriously, telling him it was pure madness, and Megatron had refrained from approaching Predacon High Command. In his eyes they had gone soft throughout the years of peace with the Maximals. Peace.... He sneered. This wasn't peace, this was mockery. The Predacons would have won the war, he knew, since their strength was superior, but the Maximals had had the larger energon reserves and in the end. Predacon High Command had agreed to the peace treaty. Now, if they got enough energon for themselves to power their whole army, the war could be started all over again and this time there would be no treaties, only defeat and the Maximals on their knees. Megatron smiled coldly. And he would be in command of this powerful army, not some wimpy Predacon High Commander.   
He tore himself out of his dreams as Tarantulas started working on the security controls. Another window on the viewscreen showed him Terrorsaur's point of view, as the airborne Predacon circled high over the building, his visual on maximum magnification, checking on their surroundings in case someone approached. Pusher now walked up to Tarantulas, carrying what he called a 'CyberBee', a small, remote controlled, airborne device. Pusher was an old friend of Megatron's, someone he knew from the war and someone who was highly capable. He had invented the CyberBee several months ago and when Megatron had heard about it, he had known that this was exactly what he needed to pull his 'stunt' off.   
Megatron had needed Predacons who wouldn't run to High Command and blow his dreams of power, but he also needed capable warriors. To find both qualities in one was difficult. He had searched through the lowest levels of Predacon hierarchy to find those now involved in the theft. Pusher was such a Predacon, even though he had won many honors in the war. He had gambled too high too often after the war and had lost everything he had gained for himself, slipping and tumbling until he was a low-rate inventor without a proper job.   
Tarantulas was a scientist, but from a totally different level as most scientists Megatron knew. He had been expelled from every major scientific group because of his experimental nature and his low regard of another's life. Tarantulas was more or less a mad scientist with ideas that made your skin crawl, but his mind was quick on the uptake and he knew how to handle himself in a combat situation. He had proven that by inventing a circuit breaker to get them past the first row of electronic security measures.   
Terrorsaur kept an eye on things from his position as a flyer high above the complex; too high to attract attention, but close enough to monitor everything. Megatron had chosen him for only one reason: his flight abilities and his experience. Of course, there were many flyers, but Terrorsaur had been one of those Megatron had needed, one of those who would do anything for money and the feeling of power. And he had nothing to lose.   
Minerva was manning their escape shuttle and also functioning as back-up. She was as skilled as a pilot as she was fierce in her expression of opinion. Her political position was one of an outlaw, not running with the politics of High Command. She was a warrior as well, quite skilled and very fast, and in the war she had made a name for herself as one of the remorseless fighting machines the High Command had used to infiltrate and assassinate Maximal commanders and Elders. She had been caught, though, and after the peace treaty had been issued, she had been handed over to Predacon High Command, who had dropped her, denying every knowledge of her existence. It had enraged Minerva more than her capture and she had fought against this peace ever since.   
Megatron saw the first line of security go down. Pusher moved into the building, carefully carrying the Bee and then stopped. He played with the Bee's controls and the small machine's eyes started to glow red. It hummed softly and took off, flying swiftly through the first of the many archive rooms. Pusher linked into the Bee's visual and audio sensors, guiding it through the rooms until it arrived at its intended destination. As it hovered over the Golden Disk's display case, Tarantulas' program activated and the Bee manipulated the second line of defense, breaking the security circuits of the case. It opened after a short while, making no noise at all, and the Bee descended, its small claw-like feet grabbing the Disk. It powered up the additional thrusters and slowly carried the precious relic out of the room, through the corridors and back to where Tarantulas and Pusher waited. Pusher held out one hand. The Bee dropped the Disk and then settled down on his shoulder, deactivating.   
Megatron smiled, pleased. Everything had gone smoothly so far. No one had been alerted to the theft. Terrorsaur was still checking on enemy approach but nothing moved. As Pusher and Tarantulas returned, careful not to be discovered by accident, Megatron walked over to the waiting shuttle. Terrorsaur veered off the moment Tarantulas and Pusher were at the shuttle, sending a short string of encoded information that he would meet them at the ship. Megatron acknowledged and then turned to Pusher, who handed him the Golden Disk. A slow smile spread over the Predacon commander's face. Power and control. It was his. All he had to do was follow the coordinates and he'd find the energon he needed to power up his army.   
The shuttle sped away from the building and toward the hidden space ship which would take them to the right planet.......   


As it was ........

Megatron looked at the robot opposite of him, separated by a high security, transparent wall, which would resist even blasts from a canon, and didn't know whether to feel anger or disappointment. Right now he settled for slightly simmering anger and the feeling that his plan might go down the drain. At least partially.   
Pusher looked almost apologetic. "Looks like you have to find another man," he said quietly.   
Megatron scowled. "What happened?" he asked.   
Pusher shrugged. "Tried out a new invention. Sadly enough, it didn't work and the alarm system started screaming. They caught me seconds later." He shrugged again. "If it had worked, I'd have no trouble financing the rest of my life anymore."   
Megatron smiled slightly. "Too bad."   
"Yeah. Listen, I know someone you might want to hire. His name is Scorponok. Quite talented. He's pretty dense, granted, but loyal. He's skilled and he worked on the Bee with me. Invented some Bee of his own as well."   
Megatron frowned slightly. "Where can I find him?"   
"Hangs around the usual places I did. Took it quite hard that they caught me and tries to finish some of the stuff I started." Pusher grinned, revealing fang-like extension inside his mouth. "Point him in the right direction and you have the wished-for results. Don't pressure him. He's bound to get nervous fits."   
The scowl on the Predacon commander's face darkened. Nervousness was not a feature he was looking for but he'd look into this Scorponok character. There was no other option. Pusher was the only one he had wanted for the job and since he was in prison and not likely to get out any time soon, Megatron had to run with what he had.   
"I'll have a look," he simply said and rose from the visitor's chair.   
Pusher nodded and then left the small cubicle under heavy guard. Megatron walked out of the prison facility, shuddering. He hated prisons and he had no intention to end up in one.

* * *

"Has everything conspired against me!" Megatron hissed and slammed his hands onto the desk, startling the Predacons assembled in the room. He looked at who he had been able to recruit, which was not who he had planned to have.   
Tarantulas gave him an unreadable look, his green visor displaying no emotions, his face as neutral as could possibly be. He had been easy to find since he left a trail of destruction whenever he was in an experimental mood, but no one had yet managed to track and capture him in the end. He was as clever as he was bordering to madness. Megatron had finally discovered the scientist and made him an offer he had not been able to turn down.   
Terrorsaur had been less hard to find, but the Predacon flyer came with certain things attached, one of them being Waspinator. Waspinator was a case of his own. He was a flyer, he had war experience, but Megatron suspected that the war had shaken some chips loose inside his core unit which no one had been able to tie down again. He talked of himself in the third person and sometimes seemed to operate on a totally different plane of mind. Megatron had heard about these side-effects from prolonged combat and Waspinator was one of those cases beyond normal help, it seemed. But he was reliable and he was good at his job, so Megatron had only hesitated for a few moments to hire him for this task as well, mainly since the flyer had already heard more than Megatron had wanted him to hear. It seemed Terrorsaur had either taken pity in the damaged flyer -- which was hard to believe -- or he had simply picked him up as a follower. Terrorsaur was a Predacon who had the desire to show off and having a 'lieutenant', which he claimed Waspinator was, helped his self-esteem. That Waspinator was as un-lieutenant like as they came seemed to be of no great importance to Terrorsaur.   
And then there was Scorponok. Scorponok was a slightly dense, more or less ingenious scientist who had some battle experience. He tangled with all kinds of inventions, most of them blowing up right in his face, but those who didn't, worked perfectly. He was tethering on the brink between genius and delusion. Pusher had been very much correct about him. Megatron had found the hapless Predacon exactly where he had thought he would be -- in Pusher's old lab -- and he had approached him carefully with the offer. Scorponok had only stared at him as if he couldn't believe anyone would want him in on such a scheme and then said yes. And he was loyal. Megatron had no idea why, but the other Predacon was fiercely loyal to him even though Megatron had done nothing, at least he could recall nothing, to ignite this feeling.   
As if this hadn't been all that could have gone wrong, Minerva had been nowhere to be found. She seemed to have disappeared and rumors had it she had taken on too much for her own good and perished in a fight. Minerva now and then got into brawls and fights, most of them ending with her enemy dismembered or terminated, but she had always come out of them alive, carving herself an even better reputation. Now she seemed to have underestimated her last adversary. Megatron had not been able to find out whether she was alive or not and he had no time to dig deeper. He had searched for a replacement and found it in someone who was rumored to have been said adversary, though he couldn't be sure: Dinobot.   
Dinobot was a Predacon he had to be careful around, someone he would have to keep in the back line, not move up on front. He had a volatile temper and was likely to go into the Archive with guns blazing if the whole secret operation took too long in his opinion. He was a very skilled warrior, a pure soldier, and if it hadn't been for some unlucky 'accidents' concerning his comrades and superiors, he might still be part of the Predacon army. As it was, he had once too often lost his temper and they had expelled him in dishonor. Since Dinobot was a soldier bound by honor, he had taken it badly, which in turn had delivered him even further down the hierarchy until he was nothing but a mercenary, selling himself for energon. He was very good in his profession and Megatron had to keep an eye on the temperamental Predacon. Dinobot was no quiet supporter, he was a rather outspoken critic and had not missed a chance to point out that the plan was stupid and most likely to fail because of Megatron's strategy or lack thereof. But since Megatron paid him, he would not take any actions -- now.   
"All right," Megatron now said. "This is the plan and I expect it to be followed." He shot Dinobot a sharp look, which the other Predacon simply answered with a cold smile. "Terrorsaur, you stay with the ship."   
"But...." Terrorsaur was about protest, but Megatron's angry flash silenced him. "All right," he muttered.   
"We're moving out tonight," the Predacon commander continued. "No mistakes, no sudden changes in strategy on your own. We go in, get the Disk, get out and to safety."   
Dinobot gave a soft snort and Megatron bit down a sharp comment. Dinobot was provoking him, he knew, and he wouldn't fall for it, no. When all of this was over and the Golden Disk was in his hands, he'd deal with Dinobot -- permanently!   
The small Predacon team moved out, each wrapped up in his own thoughts.

* * *

The Archive building loomed up in front of them and Megatron smiled, though it was not a smile of satisfaction. Everything looked deserted and no one would be around here until morning. The only Maximals present were the guards and they could prove a problem. Someone somehow had changed the duty roster as it seemed and instead of changing guards in about three hours, the change was taking place now -- which meant twice as many guards as planned. It provided a problem and Megatron had yet to decide whether or not to blast them all away or continue as planned. Finally he voted for the secret infiltration first. They could blast them all later anyway if everything failed. The commander nodded at his team and they dispersed, knowing what to do, though some looked like they didn't. Megatron activated his internal com line and watched.   
Everything wasn't running smoothly. Of course, no one had seen them arrive, but that was about the only thing he could think of as a positive sign yet. The small transport shuttle was almost invisible against the dark walls of the surrounding buildings, just as planned, and Tarantulas' device was working perfectly, but the shuttle's pilot was not inside the shuttle -- he was standing at Megatron's side, an eternal scowl on his face. Dinobot had not been willing to stay somewhere in the back when he had the opportunity to get into a fight.   
"You may need my warrior skills," he had told Megatron with a sneer bordering to more than just simple provocation.   
Megatron had refrained from getting into an argument and since they had twice as many Maximals to take on, Dinobot might come in handy: as front line canon fodder. Megatron grinned to himself.   
A picture popped up on his view screen, a small device linked to the camera eye each Predacon on his team was outfitted with. The eye was Pusher's invention and it should have worked perfectly since Pusher always worked with perfection, but this time it hadn't been Pusher constructing them. It had been Scorponok. And Scorponok, when under pressure, tended to mess up, just like Pusher had told Megatron. The eyes were working, true, but the picture was grainy and no amount of fine-tuning helped.   
Dinobot had put it the correct way once, shortly after the first trial with the Bee had ended up with half of Scorponok's lab smashed because of the runaway device: Scorponok was notoriously incompetent. Apparently he knew the scientist from former times, but there was no friendship between those two. Dinobot tolerated Scorponok, just he seemed to only tolerate Megatron, nothing more.   
The picture on screen now was Tarantulas' point of view as he took out a Maximal guard -- swiftly and noiselessly. The Maximal broke down without a sound and Tarantulas dragged him into the shadow of the building, only to encounter a second guard, who gave him a bit more trouble. Luckily enough, Tarantulas took him out just before he could radio for help, but it had delayed them. And the other guards would surely check on their missing comrades soon. Tarantulas now turned his attention to the door locks and started his work.   
Another window on the viewscreen showed Megatron Waspinator's point of view, as the airborne Predacon circled high over the building, his visual on maximum magnification, checking on their surroundings in case someone approached. He was talking to himself, Megatron heard, a soft murmur over the com line. It sounded suspiciously like 'Stupid plan...... Wazzzzpinator tired of flying circlezzz ..... Wazzzpinator hero....'   
Megatron closed the com channel with a disgusted flick of one finger. Dinobot still stood at his side, arms crossed in front of his chest, lips twisted into a faint, sarcastic smile.   
The locks finally gave way under Tarantulas' fingers and Tarantulas chuckled to himself, something he was doing constantly and something Megatron had come to ignore. The door opened with a soft hiss and Tarantulas turned his attention to the electronic defenses, the cameras, motion sensors, heat pads and other security inside the building.   
Scorponok moved into the building when Tarantulas gestured it was safe for him to do so, carefully carrying the Bee and then stopped. His fingers moved nervously and Megatron rolled his optics. Scorponok fiddled with the Bee's controls and the small machine's eyes started to glow red. It hummed softly, then the humming died. Scorponok gave it a nervous glance, fiddled again and again it hummed, only to die down once more. Tarantulas turned away from his place at the security controls, shooting Scorponok a disgusted look.   
Scorponok finally managed to get the Bee working and it took off, flying more or less swiftly through the first of the many archive rooms. Scorponok linked into the Bee's visual and audio sensors, guiding it through the rooms. The Bee flew like a drunken droid, nearly bumping into another display case and veering off just in time to prevent from ending up in a shelf full of ancient scrolls. Finally it arrived at its intended destination. The Bee circled over the display case of the Golden Disk and Scorponok seemed to fight the controls as it didn't seem to be inclined to stop its mad circles. After five more circles it hovered over the Golden Disk. Tarantulas' program activated and the Bee manipulated the second line of defense, breaking the security circuits of the display case. This proved no trouble, Megatron saw with satisfaction, since the program the Bee was executing was Tarantulas' invention, not Scorponok's. The case opened after a short while, making no noise at all, and the Bee descended, its small claw-like feet grabbing for the Disk.   
It missed.   
Megatron felt like slapping his hand in front of his face, but didn't. He didn't want to give Dinobot the satisfaction of seeing his rising despair. This was definitely not what he had planned!   
Idiot! he thought darkly.   
The Bee's claws grabbed again and again it missed.   
Suddenly Waspinator sent a string of information, his optics targeting a bunch of Maximal guards running toward where Scorponok and Tarantulas were.   
"Yout plan has failed, Megatron. Maybe you want to call in a retreat?" Dinobot suggested sweetly.   
"A retreat, no, I think not," Megatron replied calmly, his voice pure ice. "I think I will send in the back-up, yess." His eyes narrowed pointedly on Dinobot.   
Dinobot smiled humorlessly and took out his sword, his optics relaying what he thought of this whole plan, down to the last detail, and that there was no doubt about what he'd love to do. Megatron held the stare, knowing fully well that Dinobot had just turned from a team member to a great liability and that getting rid of him was no longer just an option; it was a fact. Then Dinobot charged into battle. Megatron got his own blaster out and smiled grimly. As long as he needed the impulsive Predacon soldier he'd tolerate his annoying presence, but the moment they were safely away, he'd remove him.   
Alarm klaxons went off inside the building and flood lights lit up the area. Megatron aimed carefully and sent off several shots, taking out the flood lights as fast as they had come.   
Scorponok, who had been nervous to start with, turned slowly toward mild panic. The Bee grabbed for the Disk again and finally got it, its claws closing around it. It powered up the additional thrusters and slowly carried the precious relic out of the room, flying as unsteadily and racelessly back to its owner as it had flown into the Archive.   
Dinobot encountered the first of the guards and made short work of the two smaller opponents who had never had a chance against the Predacon warrior. Dinobot in battle rage was an opponent you didn't want to have, Megatron mused as he watched Dinobot take on the next guard, who lost several shots into his general direction and hit one shoulder. The hit had little effect on Dinobot, except maybe fire up his rage even more, and he continued to mow down opponents as they came, optics bright red.   
Scorponok held out one hand as his Bee approached and it dropped the Disk, which Scorponok, in his rising panic, nearly dropped himself. The Bee suddenly sputtered and the lights in its eyes died. It fell to the ground, a lifeless heap. Scorponok wanted to pick it up but Tarantulas grabbed him and pulled him away, back to where the dubious safety of the shuttle awaited them.   
Megatron shot one of the shuttles coming around a corner. It was marked as a patrol car, clearly alerted by the alarm. The shuttle crashed into the Archive's wall, damaging it severely. Then he turned and ran to their own escape shuttle, which was still camouflaged. He arrived about at the same time as Tarantulas, who was still more or less dragging Scorponok along. Scorponok's visor flashed in no longer suppressed panic and he was clutching the Disk like there was no tomorrow. And if the Maximals caught them with the Disk, there would truly be no tomorrow for them, Megatron knew.   
"Get in!" he ordered and the two climbed into the shuttle.   
Suddenly Dinobot popped up, flinging himself into the shuttle as well and starting it in one smooth move. He looked slightly singed, but none the worse for wear. Waspinator, who had kept some of the guards busy and provided cover fire, followed them and buzzed nervously. There was no clear sentence coming out of him as his voice was overlayered with his buzzes.   
Dinobot gunned the shuttles engines and took a corner with them almost sliding into a wall, then he opened the thrusters on full again, the shuttle lurching ahead and speeding toward their rendezvous point, the place where Terrorsaur was waiting with the ship. Megatron held on to his seat as Dinobot maneuvered the shuttle like a madman. Megatron had to confess that the other Predacon was a superb pilot but also someone who played risky. Several patrols were now after them, trying to stop them, and Dinobot outmaneuvered them all.   
Megatron contacted Terrorsaur over a secure line, telling him to keep the aft hatch open and start up the engine. Terrorsaur acknowledged and as the rather large, though sleek ship came into view, Megatron saw the open hatch.   
"Terrorsaur, aim for the Maximals and destroy them!" the Predacon commander ordered and then witnessed several bolts of energy searing over them and hitting the pursuers. More laser fire turned the streets into a craterscape and Dinobot got the last out of the engine as he raced toward the open hatch. Megatron saw the engines of the ship already firing up.   
The shuttle sped into the cargo hold and Dinobot slammed in the reverse thrusters, braking hard. The shuttle rolled off to the right, then to the left and nearly collided with the far end of the cargo hold. When it stopped, Megatron was stunned for a nano-second, then climbed out of his seat and barked orders into his com link.   
"Get us off the ground, Terrorsaur! I don't care who you have to blast for it!"   
"We have orbital patrols closing in on us!" Terrorsaur screeched.   
"Destroy them!" Megatron snarled.   
The sleek ship shuddered once as the engines fired up more and then took off. Megatron was racing toward the bridge, the others following, Tarantulas still somehow dragging Scorponok. He heard laser fire from outside and some of the shots were hitting the ship, but the shields were absorbing the shocks. Waspinator was already on the bridge. He had apparently used one of the smaller topside hatches and now he was manning one of the stations. Megatron took the command chair and swiveled it so he could have a full view of where they were going. A sphere descended beside him, the ship's three-dimensional control display.   
The display showed him a squadron of Maximal fighters. Orbital fighters, he saw with a terrible smile. They wouldn't be able to follow them once they were out of orbit. Still, they were a nuisance and he nodded at Terrorsaur to continue picking them out of the sky. The lasercanons of the ship spewed their deadly fire and one after another the fighters either veered off to escape destruction or tumbled helplessly toward the surface, hit and burning.   
"Full speed!" Megatron ordered.   
Dinobot, who'd slipped into the pilot's chair as if there was no argument about who was flying, acknowledged silently and the ship lurched ahead, quickly clearing the planet.   
"Two battle cruisers coming right at our position," Tarantulas told his commander, a soft chuckle following the statement.   
"Canons on-line!" Megatron said coldly. "Clear us a way!"   
The ship's plasma canons tore into the surprised battle cruisers, who had apparently not expected this ship to be armed so heavily. True, the ship looked like nothing what it really could do. Megatron had taken great care in selecting the escape vessel, buying and refitting a scout ship, which was fast, but normally not as heavily armed as a battle cruiser. He had exchanged the armor and installed a few surprises, like the plasma canons, which could puncture a normal battle cruiser's shields. And Megatron knew the Maximals had no heavy cruisers anywhere near Cybertron, at least not near enough to stop them.   
"Prepare for hyperspace jump!" he told his crew. "The moment we are out of range, get us into the warp gate!"   
The scout ship shot past two baffled and heavily damaged Maximal ships and Terrorsaur activated the warp gate frequency, getting them inside. Megatron allowed himself a satisfied smile. Even with so much bungling up, they had managed to steal the Golden Disk, yesss!   
"Scorponok, give me the Disk," he ordered and the other Predacon handed it over. He seemed to have calmed down a bit, though he was still moving nervously.   
Megatron studied the inscription of the Disk, his smile widening. It shouldn't be too hard to get to this place where energon was in abundance.....

* * *

A void opened in the darkness of space, spewing out two objects. The Predacon ship blasted out of the transwarp gate and shot toward a planet looming up before them. It was closely followed by another ship, this one a bit more bulky. The second ship was firing immediately at the Predacon vessel, taking some of the outer hull off. Megatron felt the ship rock under him, alarm klaxons going off at several stations, telling him more than the damage reports scrolling up on his screen. Their aft canons were shooting constantly at their pursuer, but the bulky ship was not to be shaken off lightly. Both ships had taken heavy damage even before they had left the warp gate.   
"Their shields are failing! Destroy them! Now!" Dinobot called, his optics alight with battle fury and blood lust.   
Megatron smiled. "Oh, now where's the fun in that? A little torment I think first, yess? Side guns!"   
The side guns flared into life and the Maximal ship was heavily puncture, air hissing out into space. It rolled off toward the planet and Megatron witnessed how the commander of it started ejecting stasis pods. Their pursuer was an exploration vessel, not a battle cruiser. Apparently Maximal Command had had no other ship available and the exploration vessel, the Axalon, as Terrorsaur had identified it, had locked onto their warp signature like a blood hound. Well, the commander, Optimus Primal, was good, Megatron had to confess, but not good enough. The Maximal explorer was going down.   
Megatron was just about to give the order to destroy the dying ship completely when the Axalon rotated and opened fire once more. The Predacon cruiser was hit massively by their plasma canon shots. Megatron was nearly flung out of his chair and he heard Dinobot's scream of rage as the ship tumbled out of his control.   
"Stabilize!" Megatron thundered.   
"Engine off line!" Terrorsaur screeched, frantically working at his station. "We took a full hit!"   
Megatron cursed.   
They were going down.   
Dinobot's optics bore into his, hatred clearly visible in it. "If you hadn't wasted the opportunity to blast them....!" he hissed.   
Megatron snarled angrily. The ship rocked again, this time more violently, as it entered the planet's atmosphere. Internal explosions shook it even more. The shields wavered under the incredible heat and pressure, but they held. Dinobot turned his attention back to his station and tried to get the ship down in at least one piece. Megatron felt his hands clench into the armrests.   
The crash was hard and it shook more than just the outward structure. It went through the whole ship. Even without diagnostics, Megatron knew they would never fly in this heap again. He activated the outer cameras and was greeted with a volcanic area, looking dark and full of foreboding. He stared just as darkly at the picture, then a firm expression settled over his features. They had survived, which was the first important fact. The ship was a wreck, but that was of no importance, at least not right now. They had been homing in on the coordinates given on the Golden Disk and if they were on the right planet, what else did he wish for now? A cold smile crept over his lips.   
"Navigation! Is this the right planet?" he asked sharply.   
The navigational computer went on-line. "Unknown. Course settings were accurate but readings are inconsistent with those expected for intended destination."   
Megatron gave a growl and caught eye of Dinobot, whose features showed quite clearly what he thought of what had happened. Megatron ignored him.   
"Never mind that!" he snarled at the computer. "Tell me there is Energon here!"   
"Confirmed."   
"Yessss! The planet has Energon!" His spirits rose and when he met Dinobot's optics again, there was a new gleam in them.   
The planet had energon! They were at the right place! Yess! Nothing could stop him now, not even the Maximals......   



End file.
